A conventional defect excluding device is known which performs a process that includes feeding, in the longitudinal direction, a long polarizing plate having a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer protected by a separator, inspecting the polarizing plate for defects in the course of the feeding, cutting the defect-containing polarizing plate portion, while leaving the separator uncut, and excluding the defect-containing polarizing plate portion (see Patent Document 1).
As shown in FIGS. 4 to 8 of Patent Document 1, a defect excluding device (15) includes a peeling claw (29) that is placed above a polarizing plate tape (3) and swingable around a pivot (28), a cylinder (30) to allow the peeling claw (29) to swing, and a film (31) that runs immediately above the polarizing plate tape (3) in the reverse direction and receives a defective polarizing plate (4a) on the upper side of the peeling claw (29) so that the defective polarizing plate (4a) is transferred thereto. When the sensor (25) of a defect detecting device (14) detects a defect (3a), the cylinder (30) is driven to extend, and the peeling claw (29) is downwardly rotated so that its tip pushes down the polarizing plate tape (3). The polarizing plate tape (3) is bent between the tip and the front end of an edge receiving stage (22), so that the defective polarizing plate (4a) going forward is peeled off from a separator (6) at the bent portion. As a result of the action, the defective polarizing plate (4a) is transferred to the film (31) on the peeling claw (29) and therefore removed. The characters in the parentheses correspond to those shown in FIGS. 4 to 8 of Patent Document 1.